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Constance Rooke dead at age 65

Some sad news from over the weekend: Constance Rooke, editor, critic, and former president of PEN Canada, succumbed to ovarian cancer at age 65 on Saturday. Rooke, the wife of novelist Leon Rooke, was a professor at the University of Victoria for twenty years, and she was the founding chair of the Women’s Studies department there. She was also the founding director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Guelph University.

As a writer, Rooke authored several critical works, including Fear of the Open Heart: Essays on Contemporary Canadian Writing. She also edited several anthologies for PEN Canada, most recently 2006′s Writing Life.

Sandra Martin has a brief obituary in today’s Globe and Mail:

Born in New York City on Nov. 14, 1942, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1964, a master’s degree from Tulane University two years later and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1973. By then, she had met and married short story writer and novelist Leon Rooke.

Together, they went to the University of Victoria in B.C. There she edited The Malahat Review and began her illustrious career as a literary critic and a champion of Canadian literature.

There will be a public celebration of Rooke’s life at a future date, yet to be determined.

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